PC Buyers Guide - July 2002 - Cases/Power Supplies

With so many items for sale in the markets, it can sometimes be difficult to decide what's hot and what's not. Come join Nick Swan as he brings us another installment of the TweakTown Buyer's Guide. There are some new toys out there, but we'll try to see which ones deserve a place within our own special systems. Come check it out!

Just as you have horses for courses, you have cases for people (Ok, it doesn't go well together, but I thought it was clever). Obviously, different people will want different cases for different things, but regardless of this, I think there are a few cases that are worthy of mention. The first of these is an awful lot cheaper than the other and fulfills its job perfectly. This case is the Aopen H600A. Aopen describes the case as a "Super Mid-Tower" which would indicate that it is larger than your run of the mill mid-tower, but not as large as the full towers. The case has four external 5.25" bays (no internal ones), two external 3.5" bays and one interal 3.5" bay, a front USB port (for 2 USB devices), 1 fan with another four optional, some cool looking stands and a 300/350/400 Watt P4 ready power supply. The power supply in this case is actually decent quality, unlike most of the PSU's that come with cheaper cases and the 300W model should suffice for most PC's, but 350W might be a better bet as it leaves some head room.

The most impressive part of this case is the price tag. They are around AU$180 with a 300W power supply and I have seen them for AU$120 without a power supply (that translates to around US$95/$65). If you don't want to shell out AU$350+ for a case, I would certainly recommend it.

The high level case market is flooded with aluminium cases with different features and gimmicks to try and get your hard earned dollars. While most of these cases are very good quality, the Lian Li cases stand above the rest. It comes with loads of features, excellent build quality, but unfortunately a rather high price. The Lian Li cases to look out for are the cheap PC5/6 (Beige/Silver) and the PC60/65 and PC61/65B (Silver/Black - The PC65/65B come with pre-installed windows). All of these cases are made from aluminium and feature four 5.25" bays (all external). the PC6x has five internal 3.5" bays and three external ones, while the PC5/6 has two external and three internal 3.5" bays.

Since these cases don't come with PSU's, you will need to purchase one. I would recommend any Enermax PSU as they actually have a power rating that is similar to what they put out (unlike many cheap PSU's), are reliable, come with 2-speed adjustable fans and don't cost too much; about AU$160 for a 350W version. If you have a new PC, 300W is the bare minimum, but I would recommend 350+ for the future, and for reliability.